A Tokyo company, Juonsha, recently began offering a mail-order
curse kit, featuring a straw doll to represent the hexee, along with eight
accessories, including nails, a curse manual, and a curse-blocking
doll to ward off return curses.

The company at first marketed to boys and girls bullied at school but
discovered the major market is women who hope to put spells on neighbors,
in-laws, and husbands.

Among the hints in the manual: "It is important to specify the
kind of misfortune [you wish upon the victim]." "It is important
to imagine the unhappy scenes."

British astronomer Dr. Jacqueline Mitton told reporters that all star
signs are about one month off, meaning that everyone who believes in astrology
has been reading the wrong signs. The dates for each star were drawn up
more than 2,000 years ago, said Mitton, but "[t]he Zodiac is constantly
changing," for example now spending only seven days under Scorpio
and more than a month each under Virgo, Taurus, and Pisces. Countered astrologer
Jonathan Cainer of London's Daily Mail newspaper: "Her claim is codswallop."

In a review of Diana Gazes's $29-a-ticket psychic spoon-bending
seminar in July, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Gazes
told the 100 attendees that their powers of concentration would "cause
an alteration in the spin of the atoms" of the spoon.

To achieve that, the student should grasp the spoon in both hands with
thumbs underneath the smallest part of the handle and "apply some
downward strength." Not surprisingly, the Chronicle reported,
spoons handled in that manner bend fairly easily.

As Gazes shouted "Bend! Bend!" the attendees leaped to their
feet, one by one, waving spoons, shouting, "I bent!"

The family of Sarasota, Florida, student Wayne Camp-Bell convinced
school officials to hand over to them a videotape they had made of him
misbehaving in class and which they had intended to use to justify Camp-Bell's
punishment.

According to the family, which is American Indian, being photographed
takes the person's soul away, and a ritual is necessary to restore it.

The $300,000 north Florida home of former state Rep. James Kerrigan
was sold at auction in January 1995 for $100 because Kerrigan had refused
to pay $2,500 of a $4,000 bill for carpeting that had a small blemish.

Two months ago, Kerrigan said the problem was the bad legal advice he
got from lawyer Joe Scarborough, who is now a member of the U.S. House
of Representatives.

The highlight of Kerrigan's one term in the Florida House was his opposing
a gun-control ban -- a position commanded during a "visit"
from the late John Wayne in a dream.

In Cairo, Egypt, seven Muslim fundamentalist lawyers filed a lawsuit
to force the happily married Professor Nasr Abu Zeid and his wife to divorce
because Zeid had written alleged heresies that disqualified him from marriage
to a Muslim woman. According to the lawyers, any Muslim has the power to
petition to end such a marriage.

Councilman Larry Townsend of Alvin, Texas, who said publicly that he
thought only Christians should be allowed to hold public office in the
U.S., was further criticized for using a racial slur.

However, he said the only reason he used the slur was because he was
role-playing during a "training exercise" and had been asked
by the "public relations" people conducting the exercise to use
language that would offend minorities.

Blue Shield of Idaho and Blue Cross of Idaho demanded the return of
payments they mistakenly made to now-suspended psychologist Terry
Clapp for treatments of several people with multiple personality disorders.

Based on testimony at Clapp's disciplinary hearing, his preferred treatment
of that disorder was exorcism, which the insurers said they do not cover.

The Economist magazine reported that Japan's meteorology agency
had recently completed a seven-year study to ascertain the validity
of the Japanese legend that earthquakes are caused by catfish wiggling
their tails.

After trying to match catfish tail-wagging with a number of small
earthquakes, the agency abandoned the study, refusing to confirm or criticize
the legend.

Just after a Church of England diocese fired Rev. Anthony Freeman of
West Sussex in July because he had admitted in a recent book that he does
not believe in God, 65 of Freeman's colleagues signed a letter protesting
their superiors' "intolerance."

The Church of England's Easter advertising this year contained no reference,
in picture or word, to a crucifix, and instead had Jesus uttering "Surprise!"
on Easter morning. Said a bewildered ad executive, "The cross is arguably
the best-known brand logo in the entire world." Said an official
of the church-run Advertising Network, which placed the ad: "[The
cross] carries too much cultural baggage."

Oregon teenagers found the body of DeWitt Finley, a 56-year-old
salesman, in the cab of his pickup truck. Last seen on November 14, Finley
had turned off the main highway to take the back roads through Siskiyou
National Forest to Grants Pass. He became stuck in the snow on Bear Camp
Road and starved to death while waiting for help.

Diary entries indicated that Finley had failed to venture out of his
truck because he was certain God would provide for his rescue, waiting
in his truck for at least nine weeks before he died.

During that time he wrote letters to his employer, saying, "I have
no control over my life. It's all in His hands. His will be done. Death
here in another month or so, so He sends someone to save me. Yet knowing
His will, I'm at peace and His grace will prevail. If I'm saved to finish
my life here, please know I'll always be thankful to you and remain your
servant. If not -- I'll see you in Glory."

The entire nine weeks Finley was waiting and praying, he was no more
than a few hundred feet from a clear, paved road which was only a 16-mile
walk to a store and safety.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported on North Wilkesboro,
North Carolina, evangelist Steven Jones, who describes himself as one of
the few in his profession who specialize in saving people with tooth trouble.
He said he has had the God-given power since 1993 to straighten teeth,
end toothaches, and replace lead and mercury fillings with those of gold,
silver, and pearl.

Moana Pozzi, 33, once Italy's most prominent hard-core pornographic
film star, died of cancer in September and was profoundly praised by many
of the country's Roman Catholics because of her turn to religion at the
end of her life.

The newsmagazine L'Espresso called her "Saint Moana"
and noted that Jesus, also, died at age 33.

The Archbishop of Naples said, "She was an example that redemption
is possible."

Since early in 1994, the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Toronto
has been conducting services in which some parishioners, overcome by the
Holy Spirit, raucously fall on the floor in side-splitting laughter.

Leaders liken this "Toronto Blessing" to such experiences
in other religions that inspire members to speak in tongues. Six evening
services per week are filled to capacity with giggling parishioners.

Visitors have taken the gospel back home to England, Hong Kong, Norway,
South Africa, Australia, and several states in the U.S.